This talks starts from a problematic passage in Tacitus, Annales of an invasion of Germany by the Roman general and heir of the emperor, Germanicus. In 14 CE, Germanicus massacred the Marsi, a German tribe. The account is problematic since there is no ethical doubt raised in the text: murdering men at peace and women and children is not seen as wrong. This allows us to think about the nature of rights in Roman and modernity. It also shows a different relationship between the individual, the nation and sovereign power. Looking at nineteenth-century mythologizations of the revolt of Arminius and the massacre of the Varus and his Roman legionaries, we see that territory and landscape are shown as giving birth to the nation Subsequently, the nation seeks its political independence. By contrast, for the Romans, the political entity (Rome and the Emperor) comes first. People are Roman and have rights because of their loyalty to the Emperor. It is only subsequently that the territory is associated with and shaped by the political power of the state. People’s identity depends not on their territories of origin, but on their political loyalties. The Tacitus passage allows us to question some of the fundamentals of modern political life: nations, lands, and citizen rights.